To The Moon: NASA's visits to the moon

Earthlings had dreamed of visiting the moon ever since they first saw it floating in the sky. And while rocket scientists learned fairly quickly how to slam into the moon with unmanned space probes, it took a bit longer before NASA perfected the art of actually landing there.

Surveyor became the first U.S. probe to make a soft landing on the moon on July 2, 1966 — 60 years ago today.

NASA's First Visit To The Moon

The first images Surveyor 1 sent back home were of its own footpad. NASA had wondered how far into the lunar dust the probe might settle.

Surveyor became the first U.S. probe to make a soft landing on the moon on July 2, 1966 — 60 years ago today. In the early 1960s, NASA successfully hit the moon with a series of “impactor” probes that were designed to take photos and transmit them back to Earth up until the last seconds.

It wasn’t until 1966 that NASA made its first attempt to make a soft landing on the lunar surface. NASA’s poor luck in the “Space Race” remained consistent: The Soviet Union successfully soft-landed a robotic craft on the moon just four months before.

Built by the Hughes Aircraft Company, NASA’s Surveyor landers were about 10 feet tall and weighed just under 650 pounds. The three legs contained shock absorbers to soften a landing. Part of the reason to send up Voyagers was to help determine how to equip landers for the upcoming Apollo missions.

Surveyor 1 lifted off from Cape Canaveral on May 30, 1966 and took three days to get to the moon. Its landing engine was cut with the craft 14 feet above the lunar surface. It bounced once before coming to a rest on June 2, landing in a crater 62 miles in diameter and littered with three-foot-wide boulders.

Equipped with a TV camera with a zoom lens and radio transmitter, Surveyor 1 began sending back photos of the lunar surface. Mission Control, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, were relieved to see it had sunk only 1 to 3 inches into the lunar soil. “We figured the probability of success at around 10 to 15%” said Surveyor 1 mission controller Justin Rennilson.

Surveyor 1 also measured the radar reflectivity of the lunar surface and made temperature readings. At high noon, the lunar temperature reached 250 degrees.

By June 14, Surveyor 1’s first lunar day was completed. The craft was powered by solar panels, but clearly, those would not be helpful during the 14-day lunar night, when temperatures fell to -260 degrees.

On June 28, controllers began sending commands for Surveyor 1 to awaken and to resume transmitting data, but there was no response — not until July 6. It took another two days for the temperature of Surveyor 1 and its batteries to return to normal.

Surveyor 1 took 11,240 high-resolution photos before its second lunar night began on July 13. The work of Surveyor 1 was complete.

On Jan. 6, 1967, controllers managed to reactivate the probe once again. For 12 hours, Surveyor 1 relayed data on the motion of the moon around the earth.

An engine failure on Surveyor 2 caused it to tumble out of control before landing. Controllers lost contact with Surveyor 4 before it landed. But Surveyors 3, 5, 6 and 7 all landed successfully.

On June 14, Surveyor 1 sent back this photo of its shadow cast by the setting sun. Nights on the moon last 14 Earth days.

That Time When Two Astronauts Visited A Lonely Surveyor Moon Probe

NASA’s second successful soft landing on the moon was by Surveyor 3 in April 1967. It scooped up soil samples, took pictures and other measurements until nightfall. When the sun rose two weeks later, NASA was unsuccessful at waking up Surveyor 3.

Thirty-one months after it landed, NASA’s second manned lunar mission, Apollo 12, landed 535 feet from Surveyor 3 — within easy walking distance. On their second day exploring the surface, Nov. 20, 1969, Astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean strolled to the dormant probe, taking care that Surveyor 3 — which had landed on uneven ground — didn’t roll over onto them.

They detached several components including its TV camera, and collected the rocks Surveyor 3 had collected in its scoop. They then left the probe to its lonely fate.